Our daughter is ill with a form of anorexia.
She is at Stanford Hospital for the second time and we are doing
everything we can to help her. Do you have any suggestions, Jewish
prayers, something that may give us some inspiration and hope
to help her get well? She is a beautiful girl of 14 with her
whole life ahead of her. We are also in family therapy to assist
the problem. Do you have any suggestions?

Dear Name@Withheld,

Firstly, may Hashem grant your daughter a complete
and speedy recovery. Tradition teaches that reciting the entire
Book of Psalms in one sitting and offering a personal prayer afterwards
can have a tremendous effect. You can even say everything in
English. I heard in the name of the great kabbalist Rabbi Yisrael
Abuchatzera (known as the "Baba Sali") that reciting
the entire Book of Psalms once a month is of great benefit. Giving
charity is also a powerful merit.

If science could genetically alter an animal that
chews its cud but does not have split hooves - a camel for instance
- to give birth to camels which do have split hooves, would it
then be kosher?

Dear Barak,

Great question! The Mishna actually discusses such
a case. The Mishna says, "If a non-kosher animal gives birth
to an apparently kosher animal, the offspring is not kosher...because
whatever comes from a non-kosher animal is also non-kosher."
So even if a camel were born with split hooves, it wouldn't be
kosher.

On the other hand, if we could genetically engineer
a kosher animal, such as a cow, to give birth to a type of camel
or pig, then theoretically such a camel or pig would be kosher,
as the Mishna says, "If a kosher animal gives birth to a
non-kosher animal, the offspring is kosher...because whatever
comes from a kosher animal is kosher."

So, the moral of the story is: If your cow has
a camel, don't have a cow.

I am working on a project involving the Talmud.
I found your website by a search engine. I especially liked
the content of the site and was wondering if you could answer
some questions that involve the writing of the Talmud. Who were
the original writers of the Talmud? When and where was it written?
Why was it written?

What is the relationship between the Torah, the
Talmud, and the Kabbalah?

Dear WIllem-Jan, Kara, and Ben Schneider,

The Torah is the Five books of Moses.

When G-d taught Moshe the Torah at Mount Sinai,
He didn't just give Moshe a written text (that wouldn't take 40
days!). Rather, G-d explained what everything meant. These explanations
are what we call "the Oral Torah" or "the Mishna."

The Jewish people preserved the Mishna as an unwritten
teaching for about 1,400 years. After the destruction of the
Second Temple, the leading Sage Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi realized
a long exile was about to begin, and that if the Mishna wasn't
written down it would become lost. He thus took the unprecedented
step of writing it down.

Not long after this, the leading Sages in Babylon
again saw a decline in scholarship, so they wrote a more comprehensive
explanation of the Mishna, called the Talmud.

Kabbalah is also part of the Oral law. It is the
traditional mystical understanding of the Torah. Kabbalah stresses
the reasons and understanding of the commandments, and the cause
of events described in the Torah. Kabbalah includes the understanding
of the spiritual spheres in creation, and the rules and ways by
which G-d administers the existence of the universe.

My 5 year old son named Ilan asked: "If
an 'ilan' means specifically a fruit tree (as opposed to the generic
"eitz" which refers to any type of tree, as two Israelis
explained this distinction to him), why do we say 'borei p'ri
ha-eitz' instead of 'borei p'ri ha-ilan?' " Thank you -
this question has stumped a number of people.

Dear John Rosen and Ilan,

"Eitz" is the Torah's term for
"tree", whether a fruit tree or not. The format of
the blessings were chosen by our Sages to correspond to the terminology
used by the Torah.

"Ilan" is the term for "tree"
in common speech, but it never appears in the Torah. "Ilan"
is actually an Aramaic word.

Thank you for your page. It is the most informative
and enjoyable page on the web. I was wondering what Judaism say
about man being born evil. Thank you for your answer. Regards.

Dear Marie Dupont,

No, man is not "born evil."

The Torah says that "the inclination in man's
heart is evil from his youth." (Genesis 8:21) The
Talmud explains "youth" here to mean from the time of
birth. However, this evil inclination is external; it is not
intrinsic to a person's pure soul. Our pure soul is given to
us even earlier, at the time of conception.

So, Judaism sees man as basically good, created
in G-d's image, but with temptation towards evil. While the evil
inclination is strong, Judaism believes that a person can choose
to overcome it. This is the concept of free choice, which is
basically the purpose of our existence: To choose good over evil.

In your "Public Domain," a reader wrote:
"Many 'chance' happenings are not chance, but are guided
from Above; many such 'coincidences' occur in my own life, and
they seem to increase the more I study, the more observant I become."

Champion golfer Arnold Palmer once mentioned something
similar. After sinking a very long putt, his opponent congratulated
him on his "luck." Palmer paused, replaced his club,
and replied: "Yes, and you know what? The more I practice,
the luckier I get!"

I read "Grab a Megilla" and enjoyed singing
it very, very much. I would like to know if you have a nice poem
that I could use for my bar-mitzvah. Today I had my first lesson
in "laining" Parshas Noach. I learn in the Yesode-Torah
school in Antwerp. I wish you good luck and hatzlacha rabba
in the future.

Regarding the university student feeling lax in
his observance: I went to Northwestern. Although it has a large
Jewish population, it has a very small Orthodox population and
I felt isolated. I found that going to stay with Orthodox families
in West Rogers Park on Shabbos was enough to keep me connected.
I thought this experience might be helpful to the university
student.

Just want to let you know how much joy I get from
reading "Ask the Rabbi." I wait for it, impatiently
I must admit, every week. It always brings a smile of recognition
or from learning a new idea. Toda raba for doing it. I truly
think it's a kiddush Hashem.

(Natalie Cohen, Tamiment, PA)

I have saved all the "Ask the Rabbi" e-mails
that deal with kashrut. They are such a great source!

Regarding your Yiddle Riddle in "Vayakhel Pekudei,"
there is an additional source about the absence of the final "fe"
from Birkat Hamazon. This source predates the Tashbetz
Koton and contains additional information. It is the Roke'ach
in siman 337, who writes that the "Yotzeir Or"
prayer and the "Shmoneh Esrei" don't contain
any final "fe" either!

Also, in "Sherlox" of that issue, you
translate "tola'as shani" as scarlet silk. To
translate it as silk is quite tenuous. The Ibn Ezra and Abarbanel
do so, but I believe that the bulk of classical Biblical and Talmudic
commentators render it, like t'cheiles and argaman,
as died wool. Keep up the truly wonderful work.

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